Monday, April 23, 2012

The F-105 Dragon, a favorite amongst many defense class aficionados, has been re-released. New release has the same specs as previous releases. This special edition plane has some flaming hot dragon artwork. One of the best looking planes in the fleet in my opinion. You will definitely leave an impression with your adversary with this baby. A defense class plane to the core - this baby is heavy on the armor and even has some armor regeneration which is rare these days. Perfect for campaign and survival matches. Don't see too many of these in versus matches (as with most defense class planes) - but there are some daredevil defense versus fighters out there to be sure! If you get a Dragon for versus matches, just beware that you will be slow and pretty easy to hit, but on the upside, you have lots of armor and armor regen to help compensate. Hats of to Z2Live for showing some creative flare on this plane - great artwork.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Below is an attempt to explain and define each of the plane parameters. Special thanks to 涼宮ハルヒ and Suzumiya Haruhi for input into this table.

Missile
damage

Increases the amount of damage
caused by your missiles

Cannon
Damage

Increases the amount of damage
caused by your cannons

Missile
lock speed

Increases the speed that your
missiles lock onto your opponent
This effect can be cancelled out by the stealth parameter of your opponent
e.g. "lock speed +10%" can be
cancelled out if your opponent has "stealth +10%"

Missile
reload speed

How fast you can fire a pair of missiles
after previous pair have been fired

Missile
tracking

Increases your own missile tracking
Effect can be cancelled out by the property "evasion"
e.g. "missile tracking +5%" can be cancelled out if your opponent has
"evasion +5%"

Overheat
threshold

Increases your amount of cannon fire
before they lockup due to overheating

Cannon
cool down

Quicker cannon cool down

Critical
Strike Rating

Critical Strike! 2x Damage
- Only 1 missile gets critical strike if this message shows up after 2 missiles
hit your opponent consecutively within a very short period of time
- 1.5 times original damage will be dealt from your opponent if the missile
gets a critical strike. NOT 2 times.
- This property is COMPLETELY RANDOM, and CANNOT be induced from ANY gaming
activities such as hitting your opponent when armor is low, consecutively
hitting your opponent, hitting the bottom of your opponent's plane etc.

Armor

Increases the amount of armor that
you have to protect from missiles and cannon fire

Armor
regeneration

Increases the regeneration of your
armor (present in defense class and a smaller amount in agility class planes)

Damage
reduction vs. missiles

Damage Resistance (Abbr. DMG Resist)
- reduces your opponent's damage dealt on you, both cannon and missile
- effect can be cancelled out by the property "damage"
- e.g. "DMG resist +6%" can be cancelled out if your opponent has
"damage +6%"

Damage
Reduction vs. Cannon

Damage Resistance (Abbr. DMG Resist)
- reduces your opponent's damage dealt on you, both cannon and missile
- effect can be cancelled out by the property "damage"
- e.g. "DMG resist +6%" can be cancelled out if your opponent has
"damage +6%"

Damage
Reduction while Maneuvering

You will receive less damage if you
are struck while you are rolling or doing a maneuver

Energy

Increases the amount of of energy
that you have available to use for maneuvers

Reduces your opponent's lock speed,
i.e.: increases their lock time
effect can be cancelled out by the property "lock speed"
e.g. "stealth +10%" can be cancelled out if your opponent has
"lock speed +10%"

Evasion

Reduces your opponent's missile
tracking
effect can be cancelled out by the property "missile tracking"
e.g. "evasion +5%" can be cancelled out if your opponent has
"missile tracking +5%"

Damage
increase while energy is >85%

If you have more than 85% energy,
then you inflict more damage

Energy
Regen while ARMOR is <35%

If you have less than 35% armor,
then you regenerate energy quicker

Missile
Resistance

- reduces your opponent's missile
damage
- effect does not cover cannon damage
- effect can be cancelled out by the property "damage"
- e.g. "Missile Resist +5%" can be cancelled out if your opponent has
"damage +5%" and hits you with a missile.
- this property has been REMOVED

Lock
Range

Increases ability to lock missiles
on your target from a longer distance away

Monday, April 16, 2012

We finally have the last of the "leaked" planes released. The FA-92 Odyssey has officially been released! Based on the AV-8B Harrier, it is nice to see a new design show up after the many repainted versions of the Hawken and other redos. The Odyssey has decent stealth at +8%, with only the Juggernaut and Arbiter edging it out both at +10%. Here is a surprise - a defense class plane with increased damage! This will be the first defense class plane in the fleet with an upper for damage at +5%. This will make the Odyssey better for damage than any agility class planes and in the ballpark of weapons class plane damage. As for Missile Resistance - WAZUP with the "#stats.damageReduction" - somebody didn't double check their coding - pretty lame Z2! Anyway, this is Missile Resistance, which is a unique characteristic only for defense class planes. At +10%, the Odyssey now easily becomes BEST IN FLEET for missile resistance. Of note, Z2 must have thought that the Odyssey needed a little boost, as you see in the figures, the leaked version only had +5% missile resistance. Armor is also very good at +12% which is second in fleet only to the Juggernaut. Overall a pretty impressive defense class plane. At 180 coins, its not too badly priced, but you know me, I'm a bit of a cheapskate so I will stick with my Arbiter, but the missile resistance is pretty interesting for the Odyssey..

Monday, April 2, 2012

After a long hiatus, Z2 has brought back the P-79 Spectre, one of the best agility class planes that they've ever produced. At +6% Damage, the Spectre is second in class only to the Reaper (Reaper is +7%). Similar with Agility - the Spectre is second in class only to the Reaper (Reaper is +15%). Agility class planes are always a bit low on energy, but the Spectre compensates with +12% which is second only to the Zephyr and is quite a bit higher than most other agility class planes. Speed is at +12% for the Spectre which is again second in class to the Reaper.

So - should you buy the Spectre? At 228 coins, it is expensive. The closest equivalent plane that is comparable is, as mentioned, the Reaper. The Spectre has significant more energy than the Reaper which will help when you are doing all those rolls and accelerations although Reaper has an edge in damage, agility and the +5% armor which is invaluable for the thin-skinned agility class. Before the Reaper was released, the Spectre ruled the agility class, but now I have to If I had to choose between the two, I would have to go with the Reaper. Make no mistakes though, the Spectre is no slouch and if you think that extra bit of energy will help your fighting style, then the Spectre might be for you.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

If you tuned in this morning, you will see an interesting offering by Z2. In honor of April fools day - we have a flying horse for the Wartusk. Also, whenever ANY plane fires missiles, you will here a horse neighing.

Nice to see Z2 trying to have a bit of fun. All is supposed to be back to normal by tomorrow so enjoy while it lasts - I especially like the sparkly excrement spewing from the horses rear end in the artwork. Is this a new type of weapon?